Art of manufacturing hollow glassware.



Patented Apr. 29, I902.

(Application filed. Feb. 11, 1902.)

a Z 6 $0 a Attmeys INVENTORS J. c. v., F. P. R. & r. L. ARBOGAST. ART OFMANUFACTURING HOLLOW GLASSWARE.

(N0 Mt ldel.)

W]TNESSES UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIcE,

JOHN I. ARBOGAST, CHARLES V. ARBOGAST, FRANOIS J. ARBOGAST, PHILIP R.ARBOGAST, AND FREDERICK L. ARBOGAST, OF PITTSBURG, PENN- SYLVANIA;

ART OF MANUFACTURING; HOLLOW GLASSWARE.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 699,058, dated April 29,1902.

Application filed February 11, 1902.

T 00% whom zit may concern.-

Be it known that we, JOHN I. ARBOGAST, CHARLES V. ARBOGAST, FRANCIS J.ARBO- GAST, PHILIP R. ARBOGAST, and FREDERICK L. ARBOGAST, citizens ofthe United States,

residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State ofPennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in theArt of Manufacturing Hollow Glassware; and we do hereby declare thefollowing to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention,such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake and use the same,

I 5 This invention has relation to the man ufacture of hollow glassware,and has for its object the provision of a novel method or processwhereby the skill and experience now required in the production ofhollow glassware is dispensed with, the cost of production greatlylessened, and the output of the glass-factory greatly increased.-

In making hollow glassware-such, for example, as bottles-it is customaryin accordz 5 ance with the practice of many years to first blow the bodyof the ar'ticlein a mold, then attach it in a reversed position to apunty, then reheat and shape and finish the neck, and finally anneal thefinished article. The

operations of blowing the article and then finishing the neck requireskilled high-priced labor, but one article at a time is handled, and allthe operations are necessarily conducted in the furnace-room ofthefactory,

wherein are locatedthe melting and reheating furnaces and thelothernecessary appli ances. In other methods employed the neck or mouth ispressed'in a mold and the blank reheated before becoming too cold andthe 40 body blown'to completed shape in'another mold. The annealing ofthe articles under such methods is necessarily a final step, and as theblowing and finishing operations have to be completed without allowingthe glass to become cold the manufacture of glassware has certainwell-defined and well-understood limitations.

As in all .methods heretofore practiced where the neck is pressed andthe body re- Serial No- 9a5s1. (No specimens.)

. came cold, it was consequently necessary to keep it under continuousmanipulation, re

heating it from time to time to maintain the necessary softness of theglass, and hence each shop or group of hands working together wasobliged to finish each article in succession by a series of continuousoperations, so that the simultaneous production of a number of articlesby each shop or group of hands was impracticable. In our process'wepropose to limit the work of each shop to the production of blankshaving finished necks and to have the final blowing and completion ofthe bodies accomplished at a subsequent pehiod by unskilled labor andwithout interfering with or dependence upon the workmen who areexclusivelyengaged in pressing the necks, and thus avoid the limitationsin production that must necessarily prevail where any continuousmanipulation of the glass from the time it is first gathered until thearticle is completed is practiced. The necessity of employing skilledlabor and a number of operatives-working together in a shop increasesthe cost of production and imposes a serious limitation on the'output.

Our object is to obviate the difficulties heretofore experienced in theendeavors to produce hollow articles of glassware in quantity andwithout employing skilled labor or expensive and complicated machinery,and we have to this end found it expedient to radically depart from theorder in which the various operations have heretofore been carried onand to adopt the following: first, to produce at one operation and in asingle mold a number of blanks, of which only the neck part will befinished; second,to anneal these blanks, third, afterannealingto reheatat one time a number-ofthe' blanks and to then blow the articlein a moldto the com pleted form. The only operation or step in our process whichis necessarily carried out in the melting-room is the pressing of the 5neck portion of the blank. After the blanks are annealed they are takento the packingfinished form may be carried on by appliemployed, so thatthe articles may be completely finished before being taken to the leer;but where, as in our process, the blowing of the blank to its completedshape is not done until after the annealing there is no danger attendingthe reheating, and this and the blowing may be conducted by unskilledlabor and at a cost greatly less than now necessary in blowing articlesin molds. It is our purpose in blowing the reheated articles to shape touse compressed air, and to thus substitute mechanical appliances forskilled labor.

111 the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a sectional view of apress-mold adapted for the first step of our process. Fig. 2 is a planview of the reheating apparatus. Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the same,and Fig. 4 is a sectional view of a blow-mold adapted to the use ofcompressed air.

The mold shown in Fig. l is intended to press at one time a number ofblanks and consists of a hinged two-part mold having several cavities AA, with extensions 0. a at their bottoms cut to form the necks of theblanks. The base-plate B is pierced below each cavity for the passage ofa plug 1), and these plugs are supported by a sliding Wedgeshaped plateB, which in one position allows all the plugs to sink below the surfaceof the base-plate B, but which when drawn lengthwise elevates the plugsinto the centers of the neck, forming portions of the mold-cavities. Themold being closed, the molten glass is gathered on the end of a punty,is inserted in each cavity through openings in the top of the mold, andthe plugs are then elevated and enter the glass, so as to form theneckopening and a small cavity in the ball above the neck. The insertionof the plug presses the glass against the walls of the cavity, so as toproperly mold the neck. The plugs are now withdrawn, the mold is thenopened, and the blanks are removed and placed in the leer to beannealed. After being annealed the blanks are ready for the reheatingand finishing operation, and these are conducted in the following mannerand preferably in what is known as the packing-roomz The blanks are eachinserted, with the neck part uppermost, in a suitable holder, which mayconsist of a two-part hinged ring E, having extensions 0 to form ahandle, and the holders or rings arranged on a supporting plate or tableF,provided with any number of openings g g, so that the bulb parts ofthe blanks willhang downward through the openings g g. Gas-jets I I arearranged below the plate or table F in such positions that the flameswill play upon the blanks and reheat the bulbs to a sufficient extentfor blowing. The rings E E, with the blanks supported thereby, are thenremoved from the reheating apparatus and placed in a suitable blow-moldK, having cavities of the shape to which the blank is to be blown, andthe unfinished parts of the blanks are then blown,preferably bycompressed air, so as to fill the cavities of the mold and complete thearticles. The mold K may be formed with a number of cavities, all havingcommunication with a single compressed-air pipe, so that a number ofarticles may be finished at the same time and in the one operation. Inusing the mold K the rings on blank-holders E rest on the top of themold and form caps to the mold-cavities. These holders may be shaped ontheir underside to correspond with the shoulder part of the article tobe made. As our present invention does not relate to the structuralfeatures of the molds or other appliances,we do not deem it necessary togive a more specific description of the same.

It is Within the purpose and scope of our invention to employ any of themechanisms or appliances in use in glass-factories, in so far as theymay serve the purposes of our invention, which in its broadest sense isthe art or process of producing hollow articles of glassware by theemployment of the steps or operations successively of first forming ablank with a part thereof finished, next annealing the blank, thenreheating the bulb or unfinished portion of the annealed blank, andfinally blowing the bulb to produce the body of the article.

It will be seen and appreciated by those conversant with the presentmethods of operation and the systems employed in running glass-factoriesthat our process has great advantages. As the preliminary Work consistsin rnerely pressing a portion of a blank Without blowing or reheating itat the glory-hole, no skill except that easily acquired by thegathering-boys and press-mold operators is required in this part of thework. The blank does not have to be rolled or submitted to any of theusual operations necessary to finishing before annealing. Hence a largenumber of blanks may be produced simultaneously. After annealing thereheating of the blanks and the subsequent finishing may be performedoutside the factory proper and by unskilled labor and under suchconditions that a large number of blanks may be finished-that is, blownto complete shapesimultaneously, thus reducing the cost of manufactureand increasing the output to an extent in no wise even approachableunder present methods.

While we have described a mold for the. preliminary pressing of aportion of the blank in which the. neck or finished portion is producedat the bottom of the moldthat is, with the blank in an invertedposition-we wish it to be understood that we do not restrict ourselvesto the use of a mold of this character, but may use any other form ofmold suitable for the purposeas, for instance, the mold shown anddescribed inthe patent of Philip Arbogast, July 11, 1882, in which theneck of the blank is formed at the top of the mold, with the unfinishedportion of the blank below. Such a mold can be made with a number ofcavities and with a top plate constructed to press a number of necks, sothat a number of blanks may be pressed.simultaneously.

What we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The herein-described improvement in the art of forming and finishinghollow glassware, which consists in first forming, by pressure, asuitable blank; second, annealing the blank; third, reheating theannealed blank and finally finishing thearticle in a suitable mold.

2. The herein-described improvement in the art of forming and finishingglassware, which consists in first producin g a blank, having. a hollowfinished neck and an unfinished bulb or body; then annealing such blank,reheating the annealed blank, and then blowing the body to shape in asuitable blow-mold.

3. The herein-describedimprovement in the art or process ofmanufacturing glassware, which consists in first producingapartly-finished blank, annealing such blank, reheating the annealedblank andblowing the body of the same to a finished shape in a suitablemold.

4:. The improvement in the art orprocess of manufacturing glassware,which consists in simultaneously pressing in a mold a number of blanks,and thereby partly finishing the articles to be produced; annealing theblanks; reheating simultaneously a number of the annealed blanks by thelocal application of gas-jets to the unfinished parts, and finallyblowing a number of blanks in a single mold by compressed air. 5

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence oftwowitnesses.

JOHN L ARBOGAST. CHARLES .V. ARBOGAST. FRANCIS J. ARBOGAST PHILIPVR.ARBOGAST. FREDERICK LARBOGAST.

Witnesses to signatures of John I. Arbogast and CharlesV. Arbogastz'THos. A. CoNNoLLY', A. A. Oo NoLLY. V V Witnesses to signatures of, F.J..Arbogas t, P. R. Arbogast, and. F. L. Arbogast:

KATIE MCARDLE, J. W. F031).

